The GAC GS8 crossover is the first model of the Chinese automaker, with which it “broke” into the Russian market at the end of 2019. The company had grandiose plans, they even attracted musician Vasily Vakulenko, better known as Basta, as a brand ambassador, and a car advertisement with his participation was played on federal channels. But following a bright start, the ambitions of the Chinese diminished, the queues for cars did not line up, so the GAC in our market gradually faded into the shadows, becoming, albeit a full-fledged, but not the brightest player in Russia. Even in the current realities, the automaker is not trying to increase the pace, slowly expanding the dealer network, which today has 18 centers in the largest cities of the country, and the lineup was replenished with a third model only in the fall of 2022.
Externally, the GAC GS8 looks quite interesting and brutal, which is perhaps correct for this class of car. In my opinion, the designers of GAC Motor, when creating the model, were inspired by American and Japanese crossovers, and not the newest ones. While most manufacturers now offer models with smooth body lines, the GAC has more chopped forms, due to which it even looks larger than it actually is.
On the one hand, I want to say that the GS8 is a collection of clichés, but on the other hand, you look at it, and it seems to have its own style and design. Here are the current rear LED lights with a beautiful design in the form of tunnels, not overloaded and even light food for such a car, a seemingly powerful and brutal hood with a large vertically placed grille, but there is also an interesting multi-level fully LED optics flowing onto the upper part of the body. By the way, the car’s matrix headlights are pretty good, they give a bright and concentrated beam, but they hit more on top. In the end, I even liked the design of the GAC GS8, it has a certain zest that attracts attention, but I think there are many who will not be impressed by it.
But in terms of interior design, I can say for sure that this is a cast from Infiniti, and those old ones, before the introduction of the Infiniti Intouch two-screen solution by the Japanese. Here we see the same chip with a rounded front panel with a smooth transition to the doors, the same solution with a media system screen slightly recessed into the console, along the edges of which there are vertical air ducts, and below there is a cluster of hardware keys. No, of course, the Chinese did not transfer the interior of a Japanese car one to one here, but borrowed the concept and basic design elements. There is nothing bad to say regarding the interior of the GS8, it looks nice, the only thing is that it already smells of mothballs with this abundance of buttons, a display integrated into the panel, stupid wood-like plastic panels and a dashboard with a useless color screen in the center.
In terms of materials and build quality, the GAC GS8 is generally not bad. The upper part of the front panel and the window line of the doors are covered with soft plastic lining, below there is already an abundance of hard oak plastic, but not of the worst quality. In the center, the manufacturer launched a plastic line with a leather-like texture, which is visually pleasing, however, decorative wood-like inserts are made above it, which do not look very good (I note that in the home market the car is also available with veneer trims). The door cards are trimmed with pleasant to the touch and high-quality leather, as, indeed, are the car seats. There are no questions regarding the assembly of any questions for the model, even on our already tired test GS8 with 50,000 km of run, nothing creaked or played in the cabin, and the materials as a whole still looked quite good.
A person of almost any height and build will comfortably sit behind the wheel of a crossover, the only thing that tall drivers will pay attention to is a short pillow. The chairs are soft, but the profile is not bad, although there is not enough pronounced lateral support. The front seats are electrically adjustable, the driver additionally has lumbar support adjustment, as well as position memory for three people. In general, the GS8 is safe to go on a long trip, because in its seats you will not get tired quickly.
Visibility from the driver’s seat does not raise questions, the pillars are quite thin, and even shifted back, the mirrors are large, and everything is clearly visible through the salon mirror. It would be nice to get a full-fledged blind spot monitoring system, but it is not here, there is only some intermediate solution, which is discussed below.
There is a lot of space behind me, with a height of 187 cm, I sit down completely freely, if desired, I think you can sit cross-legged. There is also space overhead, even despite the presence of a huge panoramic roof with an automatic sunroof in its front part. The panorama brings a lot of light into the cabin, so that even on a cloudy day, the inside is lighter and more pleasant. The child behind me is also free, the Isofix mounts are located along the edges of the sofa, but traditionally for the Chinese they are hidden between the pillows.
Yes, speaking of spaciousness in the cabin, I meant the use of a crossover in a five-seat version, but we have a seven-seat one, so you can move the sofa forward and expand two additional places in the gallery from the trunk. There are few places on the third row, they are only suitable for children, and even those who can already ride without seats, since Isofix is not there. In addition, using the third row of seats, I would not want to, but I will have to squeeze the passengers in the middle row, that is, for me, for example, it will already be uncomfortable there. Climbing into the third row will also be easier for children, since the opening is relatively small, and the second row of seats only shifts and reclines the backs, but does not raise the pillow.
If you do not use the third row of seats, then we get a huge trunk of 860 liters (data from the ceiling), which is very, very good. With the seats unfolded, there is already little space left, but there is enough space for a few medium-sized shopping bags. We have a tailgate with an electric drive, the possibility of its non-contact opening with a wave of the leg under the bumper, but it takes a painfully long time to open / close, I even want to help her to speed up the process.
The media system in the GS8 comes with a 10-inch touchscreen that is reasonably responsive, decent in brightness and contrast, but low in resolution. The system can work with music, video, calls, of course, there is a radio in it, and you can also make some settings for the car through it. There is no built-in navigation in our country for the GS8, just as there is no support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, as well as screen mirroring. At the same time, the system still does not differ in speed, at some points it noticeably slows down. It is proposed to control the media system from the touch screen, but on the center console there are some keys related to it, as well as a volume knob.
Connecting phones to the system via Bluetooth is fast, but during operation, the connection sometimes falls off and reconnects. And I also note the not entirely correct import of contacts, sometimes the names from the phone book are lost along the way. You can work with call lists and contacts only from the main screen. Speakerphone is excellent, there are no questions.
For recharging devices in the crossover, there are two USB-A connectors in the front, one in the public domain and another in the armrest, as well as a large area with Qi wireless charging in the public domain. For rear passengers, only one USB is available, but there is still a standard 220V outlet. Modern gadgets do not charge quickly from the on-board network, so it makes sense to use special adapters.
The dashboard in the GAC GS8 is classic, and a large 7-inch color display is inscribed between the devices. The screen does not carry a special load, as it only allows you to view the data of the on-board computer. Even the temperature overboard was not displayed on it on a permanent basis, but left on a separate screen, which still needs to be reached. The only benefit of such a large display is that it can display the speedometer readings in digital form, since the analog device has small and hard to read markings.
There are few driver assistants in a crossover by modern standards. In our configuration there was a conventional cruise control with control buttons on the steering wheel spokes. There were also parking sensors in a circle and a 360 camera, the latter with a rather mediocre picture quality. There was also a kind of parking assistant, but only in the form of information. During parking, you put a virtual mark on the screen, which will be your guide. A specific and not very clear option. As mentioned above, there is no blind spot monitoring system in the car, there is only a so-called assistant during rebuilding, which activates the camera on the right mirror and displays a picture from it on the screen when the turn signal is turned on to the right. Also not entirely clear function, which, however, can be disabled.
As for comfort options, the car offers us three-zone climate control, which works quite well in automatic mode. The only thing that should immediately turn off the automatic air recirculation mode, as the car abuses it too much, which leads to fogging of the windows. Climate control falls on large buttons, which are combined into a separate unit, and from the inconveniences, I will only note a double temperature adjustment key, which is much better than touch-screen control, but worse than even a small pen. Rear passengers have their own climate control unit with a separate screen. And we also have three-level heating and ventilation of the front seats, as well as a heated steering wheel with a dedicated activation key on the “steering wheel” itself.
The suspension of the car almost perfectly copes with the majority of irregularities, completely extinguishing small potholes, and passing the collision to the interior only on large protrusions / potholes with sharp edges, and then it does it somehow elastically. There are also no questions regarding sound insulation for the GS8, that in the city, that on the highway it is quite quiet in it and you can even talk with passengers in the gallery without raising your voice.
In Russia, the GAC GS8 crossover is offered only with one two-liter four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine GAC Motor 320T of the second generation with a capacity of 190 hp. It comes only with a third-generation Aisin six-speed automatic transmission and front- or all-wheel drive. The engine-box combination of such a car is set up well, although with a sharp acceleration, the machine thinks for a split second. Engine power is enough both for the city and for free overtaking on the highway, and the box works in most cases smoothly and without jerks. The GAC GS8 feels like a big SUV in handling, the steering is not sharp, the turning circle is large, and there is noticeable roll in corners. But here it is understandable, the manufacturer gave us comfort in motion, which affected handling. For some, this can be an unpleasant moment, but if we consider the crossover as a car for the family, then this is probably not so bad.
According to the manufacturer, the crossover has a ground clearance of 200 mm, which is good, but it still cannot be called a full-fledged SUV, since for difficult conditions there are only four driving modes for different surfaces, where everything is controlled by electronics, and an assistant when descending from the mountain. But if without fanaticism, in general, the GS8 is quite possible to move off the road.
Fuel consumption, in my opinion, is a bit high on the GS8, I got 12 liters in mixed driving, and it’s still not in the cold. But at least you can fill the crossover with 92-m gasoline.
In terms of safety, the GS8 is equipped with front and side airbags in all trim levels, as well as curtain airbags in the front and rear of the cabin. The car passed the C-NCAP crash test with 5 out of 5 stars.
Today in Russia, the crossover is available at a price of 2,789,000 rubles, this is for the junior modification with front-wheel drive, but the top-end GAC GS8 is already estimated at 3,589,000 rubles.
